ROONEY reckons England need to be more streetwise and learn to use more spoiling tactics like rivals Italy and Uruguay to avoid a repeat of their worst ever World Cup campaign.

WAYNE ROONEY insists England need to “get nasty” if they are ever to enjoy success at major tournaments.

The Manchester United forward is adamant the English are too honest and must learn more spoiling tactics, following their worst World Cup campaign in history.

After defeats by the more streetwise Italy and Uruguay, Roy Hodgson’s men have crashed out with their final game still to play.

And Rooney claims they can’t afford to be nice guys on the biggest stage of all.

Ahead of the 2-1 loss to Uruguay, striker Daniel Sturridge insisted England wouldn’t resort to the dark arts in a bid to sneak a victory.

But as he reflected on Thursday’s damaging defeat, Rooney said: “You look at teams who have won the tournament over previous years and you can see that nastiness.

“We need to get that in us. Maybe we’re too honest as a team.

“Uruguay stopped the game the other night. They committed I don’t know how many fouls, clever fouls, to slow the game down.

“They are small margins but those small things can amount to a big thing in terms of staying in the competition or going out.

“If we can learn that quickly and adapt then we’ll make progress.”

Uruguay’s Diego Godin escaped a sending-off in the first half when ref Carlos Velasco Carballo failed to hand him a second yellow card for a blatant foul on Sturridge.

And Rooney thinks England’s failure to hound the whistler cost them dearly.

He said: “You can see other players surrounding the referees.

“But I got kicked 10 times and I don’t think there was a yellow card given. We try to be honest but maybe that’s a fault of ours.

“We need to be more streetwise. A lot of the great teams, club and international, have that.”

It looked like the campaign would spark into life for both England and Rooney when he levelled against the Uruguayans with his first ever goal on the global stage.

But Luis Suarez’s late winner piled on more disappointment for the 28-year-old in his third World Cup.

Rooney apologised to the England fans yesterday and said: “Sorry to all the supporters who travelled and at home that we haven’t done better.

“Going into each game we had great belief in ourselves but it hasn’t worked out unfortunately.

“It’s tough but we have to stay strong and try to improve.

“We have a lot of young lads who want to play every minute. But there is a time to slow the game down a bit or control it a bit more.”

Stopper Phil Jagielka also reckons England’s young players have to learn how to win ugly.

The 31-year-old had a nightmare against Uruguay and may not be around for another tournament.

But he believes emerging talents such as Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana will benefit from their experiences in Brazil, as long as they learn to time-waste and spoil like the Uruguayans and Italians.

Jagielka said: “It’s part of a learning curve for the young lads how they time-wasted for fun.

“It is something we probably don’t do enough of. Maybe we need to look into it to be that bit more professional.

“The young players didn’t freeze out here but we have come away with the worst possible results.

“Hopefully in the next tournament we will benefit from this experience and that can be the only positive we take out of it.

“To play in a World Cup is still a fantastic thing to do. We have some excellent young lads and they are getting experience on the big stage so I wouldn’t call it an absolute nightmare or a waste of time.”

Despite England’s dismal early exit, Jagielka claims there was no gulf in class between Hodgson’s side and their two opponents.

And the Everton stopper hopes to salvage some pride by beating Costa Rica in their final Group D game on Tuesday evening.

He said: “There was nothing really between the teams in either of the games. If we took our chances and had a bit more luck defending it might have been different.

“But then again there are always ifs, buts and maybes in football. The fact of the matter is we have come up against Italy and Uruguay and lost both games.

“Luis Suarez scored two goals so whatever I say is going to make me look daft.

“But other than those goals there wasn’t a whole lot that him, Edinson Cavani and the others did. It was similar in the first game too.

“I was speaking to Joe Hart and he’s had about five saves to make in the whole tournament – and four of those have been goals.

“It sounds like a bunch of excuses but it’s just a frustrated defender trying to give an honest opinion. We are pretty gutted and trying to figure out where we – it’s gut wrenching.

“Against Italy we played pretty well but we didn’t get the result we wanted. You hope your fortune changes for the second one but it’s nearly a carbon copy.

“We played well in patches against Uruguay and aren’t particularly happy with the goals we conceded.

“The first came after a big ricochet in the middle of the park then there was a fantastic ball from Cavani.

“And the second one, for it to flick off Steven Gerrard and go inch perfect to Suarez is gutting.

“It was World Cup football at its worst but then it was a fantastic finish from Suarez.

“We had a couple of decent chances but I didn’t think the referee was as firm as he could have been.

“Uruguay could have been down to t10 men in the first half and I think more of their players should have been booked as well.”